5 firms account for a third of exports
Exporting companies show a considerable imbalance, with SMEs playing too small a part
The export footprint of the majority of Greek businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones, remains low, despite the fact that compared to 2019, the last year before Covid-19, the number of businesses whose products are sold outside Greek borders has increased.
At the same time, the successive crises of recent years, although having led to an overall increase in Greek exports, have widened the gap between very small and large enterprises, with the former participating less. Almost 53% of Greek exports were made by large companies, with over 250 employees and in fact almost 30% of the total exports of Greece in 2022 were made by just five companies.
According to the data of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), in 2022, 19,154 companies exported a total value of 51.75 billion euros.
About 72.3% of that (€37.39 billion) was carried out by companies in the categories of manufacturing, electricity, natural gas, steam and air conditioning, water supply, sewage treatment, waste management and sanitation activities, mines and quarries.
Another 21.9% (€11.32 billion) of all exports was made by companies in the wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector. Some 5.8% (€3.03 billion) of the total value of exports was made by enterprises in the sectors of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, construction and other services (excluding wholesale and retail trade etc).
From the analysis of the distribution of enterprises based on the size of the value of the transactions they carried out, in terms of exports, 29.6% of the total value of exports was carried out by five enterprises, 53.4% by 50 enterprises, and 86% by 1,000 companies.
By contrast, very small enterprises, although they are many more, had the smallest participation in the total value of Greek exports. In particular, exports in 2022 were made by 11,415 very small businesses employing up to nine staff. The total value of the exports of these companies was €4.11 billion or just 7.9% of all exports in 2022.
